Mary Faith Marshall

 Emily Davie and Joseph S. Kornfeld Professor of Biomedical Ethics
Director, Center for Health Humanities and Ethics

Mary Faith Marshall is the Director of the Center for Health Humanities and Ethics and Director of the Program in Biomedical Ethics at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. With her colleagues Lois Shepherd and Julia Taylor, she co-founded its program, Studies in Reproductive Ethics and Justice. She is Professor of Public Health Sciences in the School of Medicine, and Professor in the Department of Acute and Specialty Care in the School of Nursing. She co-chairs the UVA Health System Ethics Committee, directs its Ethics Consult Service, and serves on its Moral Distress Consult Service. Her expertise includes reproductive, clinical and research ethics, and moral distress.

She is past president of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) and the American Association for Bioethics. She served on the ASBH Health Care Ethics Certification Task Force from 2016-2017 and is a member of the inaugural class of Health Care Ethics Consultants to be certified by the ASBH (2019). She is an elected fellow of the American College of Critical Care Medicine where she chairs the SCCM Ethics Committee. In 2017 and 2019 she received SCCM Presidential Citations for Outstanding Contributions to the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

Dr. Marshall received the Trailblazer Award from the NAACP (Charleston Chapter) in 1999 for her work in policy approaches to perinatal substance use disorder, and has testified on this subject before Congress and in US District Court. She was a member of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Committee on Ethics for eleven years, and is the primary author of its Opinion #664, Refusal of Medically Recommended Treatment During Pregnancy. She is a member of the editorial board of the American Journal of Bioethics.

Dr. Marshall has served on a number of National Institutes of Health Boards, including the NIAID Division of Aids Prevention Africa DSMB and its International DSMB for Africa. She chaired the first NIH review panel on Global Health Research Involving Human Subjects. She also chaired the National Human Research Subjects Protections Advisory Committee at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and has been a special consultant to the DHHS Secretary on research related to children and prisoners. She was an expert advisor on the Committee on Assessing the System for Protecting Human Research at the Institute of Medicine.

Dr. Marshall received her BA, BSN and PhD from the University of Virginia, where she was the Paddock Graduate Fellow in Biomedical Ethics. She was a critical care nurse at UVA for eleven years. Her research interests include moral distress, coercive interventions in pregnancy, policy approaches to perinatal substance use disorder, clinical ethics, human subjects protections and research ethics. Dr. Marshall is former Associate Dean of Social Medicine and Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota (UMN) Medical School, and Co-Director of the UMN Center for Bioethics in the Academic Health Center.

Curriculum Vitae

Peer Reviewed Journals:

1. Chen DT, Shepherd L, Taylor J, Marshall MF (senior author). Who will receive the last ventilator: why COVID-19 policies should not prioritise healthcare workers, Journal of Medical Ethics Published online first: 25 June 2021. doi: 10.1136/medethics-2021-107248, https://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2021/06/25/medethics-2021-107248.info.
2. Epstein EG, Shah R, Marshall MF. Effect of a Moral Distress Consultation Service on Moral Distress, Empowerment, and a Healthy Work Environment. Healthcare Ethics Committee Forum. April 3, 2021: HEC Forum(2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10730-021-09449-5
3. DeBruin D (Invited author), Marshall MF. Coercive Interventions in Pregnancy: Law and Ethics. Journal of Health Care Law and Policy. 2021. 23(2): 101-116. Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/jhclp/vol23/iss2/3
4. Maves RC, et al (Marshall MF). Triage of Scarce Critical Care Resources in COVID-19: An Implementation Guide for Regional Allocation-An Expert Panel Report of the Task Force for Mass Critical Care and the American College of Chest Physicians.
5. CHEST 2020: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2020.03.063. IF: 9.657.
6. Marshall MF (Invited). A Man of Vision: Daniel Callahan on the Nasty Problem and the Noxious Brew. Hastings Center Report, September/October, 2020;9-10. IF: 1.345.https://doi.org/10.1002/hast.1179
7. Marshall MF (Invited author), Taylor J, DeBruin D. Ferguson v. City of Charleston Redux: Motivated Reasoning and Coercive Interventions in Pregnancy. Pediatrics, 2020; 146:S86-92. DOI: 1542/peds.2020-0818Q. IF: 5.417.
8. Epstein E (Invited author), Haizlip J, Liaschenko J, Zhao D, Bennett R, Marshall MF (senior author). Moral Distress, Mattering, and Secondary Traumatic Stress in Provider Burnout: A Call for Moral Community. AACN Advanced Critical Care. 2020 Jun 15; 31(2):146-157. IF: 1.04  PMID: 32525997

Book Chapters

1. Taylor JA, Shepherd L, Marshall MF. Reproductive Controversies: Fertility Preservation. In: Pediatric Ethics: Theory and Practice, Springer International (expected publication 2021).

Essays, Monographs, Letters, and Short Communications: 

1. Fischkoff, K, Derrington, SF, Heith, C., Oxman, DA, Shepherd, L, Marshall, MF. Donation after Circulatory Death with Normothermic Regional Perfusion: A Brief Ethical Analysis, Critical Connections, Spring 2021, https://www.flipsnack.com/SCCMedicine/critical-connections-spring-2021/full-view.html
2. Blog post, “The ethical pitfalls of prioritising healthcare workers for ventilators during Covid-19,” with Donna T. Chen, Lois Shepherd, Jordan Taylor, Mary Faith Marshall for Journal of Medical Ethics Blog

 Amicus Briefs and Affidavits:

1. Marshall MF. Signatory, Amicus Curiae Brief of Amicus Curiae National Advocates for Pregnant Women, Academy of Perinatal Harm Reduction, Americans for Safe Access Foundation, National Perinatal Association, North American Society of Psychosocial Obstetrics and Gynecology, Amy Schumer, et al in Support of Plaintiff/Appellant’s Appeal of Her Placement on the Department of Child Safety’s Central Registry. Lindsey R v. Arizona Department of Child Safety. Filed July 6, 2021.